Howdy all,

I'm just getting into digital animation. I'm a mechanical engineering major at university so I'm already learning other design programs, such as SolidWorks and AutoCAD (mostly SolidWorks though) and I have a fairly artistic background (not so much in animation, but in other fields).

I started working through tutorials and learning in Blender, and I've become addicted. I want to develop my skills in 3d graphics and see if it will take me anywhere. I know Maya is used widely throughout many industries so I'd like to probably switch over to it.

I'm trying to decide which intro textbook to buy. I've been looking at the following two pretty heavily: Learning Autodesk Maya 2008, Foundation and Introducing Maya 2008. The first is an official book, published by Autodesk, in full color, etc. The second is a pretty popular (from what I can tell) text, but not in color, and with less diagrams. If anyone has used these or has ANY kind of opinion on either of them, or can expose me to OTHER recommendations, I would appreciate any input!

Thank you for your help!